On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln rose before the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, to make a speech. Just 28 years old, Lincoln had begun to practice law and had political ambitions. But he was worried that his generation might not preserve the republic that the founders had handed to it for transmission to yet another generation. He took as his topic for that January evening, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”
You've definitely got your foot on the gas pedal these past couple weeks, HCR - to the benefit of all who read this site. Your talk with the president has energized you. Hopefully you also energized him.
This was a wonderful post commemorating a great speech that has real resonance today.
I just wish you could have included a reference to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, also January 27, and pointed out the similarities between the lawlessness and violence we experience today to that which led up to the Holocaust.
“Lincoln was quick to clarify that he was not saying all laws were good. Indeed, he said, bad laws should be challenged and repealed. But the underlying structure of the rule of law, based in the Constitution, could not be abandoned without losing democracy.”
What we should say, is that everyone should be treated equally under the law, or that no one should get to choose which laws do or don’t apply to them—rather than say ‘no one is above the law.’
Why? Because the law is not blameless—consider all the laws being passed to take away women’s reproductive freedoms, to suppress our votes, to ban books, or the laws that created segregation, or that upheld slavery.
The law itself, is not sacrosanct; it is OUR individual rights and freedoms that are...
Words matter when it comes to ensuring justice is fair...and not the plaything of the rich and powerful.
"Lincoln reminded his audience that the torch of American democracy had been passed to them."
Made me think of this line:
"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
What an amazingly prophetic speech; Lincoln was a man for his time. It sometimes feels as though life events are on a loop, and what has happened in the past is doomed to happen again.
Charming notion: "that the law must prevail over individual passions."
The orange-make-up-caked, diaper-fouled fat guy has thrown the gauntlet down on that one.
He doesn't recognize law, or the courts, or even the institution of Congress, where he refuses to let his spineless Republican cultists there do anything constructive in return for their paychecks.
He commands MAGA Mike not to do anything constructive with Dems on the southern border. MAGA Mike caves.
So America has now gone back to the 1830s with the befouled, rapist, insurrectionist.
There was a young Lincoln then. We've many good young adults now, too.
Can they cohere? Can they match the spawners of chaos, the lone wolves with their racism and AR-15s, the avid followers of hate sites engineered by the most cynical of social media billionaires?
I suspect that the mood of the country could be elevated about 100 degrees if more people were confident that those who broke the law would be punished by the law, irrespective of race, creed, or wealth.
“But his recognition, in a time of religious fervor and moral crusades, that the law must prevail over individual passions reverberates far beyond the specific crises of the 1830s.”
It is interesting that the use of religion has been so prevalent in tearing down societies. Authoritarians and anarchists often preach that there is a higher law than those that people make. That is their excuse to break laws and further their self-interest. Trump, in his crazy way, appeals to the evangelicals. The Speaker of the House is smug as he allows people to die, but tells us he is a modern Moses. The excuse for the tragic behavior on both sides of the war in Israel is linked to religion, when it is clear it is about politics, territory and power. It has always been that every religion prays for peace and then the people go and slaughter those who pray to a different god. Following laws demands that people have a greater respect and concern for other people, and that the judgment of god is reserved for the next world.
You are really referring to our condition today where the GOP wants the complete and total destruction of Democracy. Lincolns speech was 23 years from the start of the Civil war and our issues today have a longer timeline starting with Regan. We are approaching our civil war. Thanks Heather!
Thanks HCR for another illuminating moment in history that bears crucially on today. Again, thanks. We need to hear this and hear it again. Lincoln was amazing in his perceptions and in his ability to frame words for the moment that reach far beyond that moment.
Thank you, Heather. I think many Americans forget that the American democracy did not emerge fully-fledged from the founders: they knew that they were creating something fragile that would need nurturing and careful tending to keep it viable. And Lincoln recognized the ways in which we were most vulnerable, then and in the future. His speech is a good reminder of the responsibility we all have to keep democracy safe. His was not merely a warning, but a heads up that if we did not, we would be in danger. A danger that we could avert, if we are willing to recognize when the signs appear and act to prevent those signs from growing into full-fledged threats to our evolving democracy
We have been on the edge several times, and are now. It is not an inevitability that the loop repeats, as some seem to think. Lincoln wasn't being prescient, though it may appear that way at first glance. He was being realistic and pragmatic, and he issued a warning against something that he lived not only to see, but to live through and die for. That doesn't mean it is something that is inevitably going to happen again. The danger may arise, but we can stop it if we recognize it and address it before it damages our nation the way the Civil War did.
I think that is what is happening now: As a nation, we held onto our institutions, and while the process of protecting them is still in process, the point is that the process is happening, day by day, hearing by hearing, election by election. Even postcard by postcard, at the most basic level, urging people to vote to retain our democracy.
It is a difficult and challenging and sometimes frightening process, but we are doing what we need to do, and we are succeeding. We will get our democracy back on sound footing. And, having done that, we will have fulfilled Lincoln's gift to us of reminding us of what is at stake.
Love the history lesson. "Letters" has become not only a valuable view point on the news of the day but a important reminder that those who don't study history and learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. How ironic that a twenty-nine year old running for his third term as a Illinois State Representative and would preside over the greatest tragedy in American history, could so clearly speak to the issues of today. Great letter. Thank-you. WJB
You've definitely got your foot on the gas pedal these past couple weeks, HCR - to the benefit of all who read this site. Your talk with the president has energized you. Hopefully you also energized him.
Lessons from Lincoln. History reminds us of so much if we just pay attention. Thank you Professor ⭐
From my friend Doug who moved to Mexico City when Trumpbgot elected in 2016:
“The part of the Bible I like best is when Jesus told his disciples to put razor wire in the river.”
This was a wonderful post commemorating a great speech that has real resonance today.
I just wish you could have included a reference to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, also January 27, and pointed out the similarities between the lawlessness and violence we experience today to that which led up to the Holocaust.
And today the members of the political party that calls itself “The Party of Lincoln” are the epitome of those that Lincoln feared.
This—this is so key:
“Lincoln was quick to clarify that he was not saying all laws were good. Indeed, he said, bad laws should be challenged and repealed. But the underlying structure of the rule of law, based in the Constitution, could not be abandoned without losing democracy.”
What we should say, is that everyone should be treated equally under the law, or that no one should get to choose which laws do or don’t apply to them—rather than say ‘no one is above the law.’
Why? Because the law is not blameless—consider all the laws being passed to take away women’s reproductive freedoms, to suppress our votes, to ban books, or the laws that created segregation, or that upheld slavery.
The law itself, is not sacrosanct; it is OUR individual rights and freedoms that are...
Words matter when it comes to ensuring justice is fair...and not the plaything of the rich and powerful.
This line:
"Lincoln reminded his audience that the torch of American democracy had been passed to them."
Made me think of this line:
"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
What an amazingly prophetic speech; Lincoln was a man for his time. It sometimes feels as though life events are on a loop, and what has happened in the past is doomed to happen again.
Charming notion: "that the law must prevail over individual passions."
The orange-make-up-caked, diaper-fouled fat guy has thrown the gauntlet down on that one.
He doesn't recognize law, or the courts, or even the institution of Congress, where he refuses to let his spineless Republican cultists there do anything constructive in return for their paychecks.
He commands MAGA Mike not to do anything constructive with Dems on the southern border. MAGA Mike caves.
So America has now gone back to the 1830s with the befouled, rapist, insurrectionist.
There was a young Lincoln then. We've many good young adults now, too.
Can they cohere? Can they match the spawners of chaos, the lone wolves with their racism and AR-15s, the avid followers of hate sites engineered by the most cynical of social media billionaires?
I suspect that the mood of the country could be elevated about 100 degrees if more people were confident that those who broke the law would be punished by the law, irrespective of race, creed, or wealth.
“But his recognition, in a time of religious fervor and moral crusades, that the law must prevail over individual passions reverberates far beyond the specific crises of the 1830s.”
It is interesting that the use of religion has been so prevalent in tearing down societies. Authoritarians and anarchists often preach that there is a higher law than those that people make. That is their excuse to break laws and further their self-interest. Trump, in his crazy way, appeals to the evangelicals. The Speaker of the House is smug as he allows people to die, but tells us he is a modern Moses. The excuse for the tragic behavior on both sides of the war in Israel is linked to religion, when it is clear it is about politics, territory and power. It has always been that every religion prays for peace and then the people go and slaughter those who pray to a different god. Following laws demands that people have a greater respect and concern for other people, and that the judgment of god is reserved for the next world.
You are really referring to our condition today where the GOP wants the complete and total destruction of Democracy. Lincolns speech was 23 years from the start of the Civil war and our issues today have a longer timeline starting with Regan. We are approaching our civil war. Thanks Heather!
Thanks HCR for another illuminating moment in history that bears crucially on today. Again, thanks. We need to hear this and hear it again. Lincoln was amazing in his perceptions and in his ability to frame words for the moment that reach far beyond that moment.
Thank you, Heather. I think many Americans forget that the American democracy did not emerge fully-fledged from the founders: they knew that they were creating something fragile that would need nurturing and careful tending to keep it viable. And Lincoln recognized the ways in which we were most vulnerable, then and in the future. His speech is a good reminder of the responsibility we all have to keep democracy safe. His was not merely a warning, but a heads up that if we did not, we would be in danger. A danger that we could avert, if we are willing to recognize when the signs appear and act to prevent those signs from growing into full-fledged threats to our evolving democracy
We have been on the edge several times, and are now. It is not an inevitability that the loop repeats, as some seem to think. Lincoln wasn't being prescient, though it may appear that way at first glance. He was being realistic and pragmatic, and he issued a warning against something that he lived not only to see, but to live through and die for. That doesn't mean it is something that is inevitably going to happen again. The danger may arise, but we can stop it if we recognize it and address it before it damages our nation the way the Civil War did.
I think that is what is happening now: As a nation, we held onto our institutions, and while the process of protecting them is still in process, the point is that the process is happening, day by day, hearing by hearing, election by election. Even postcard by postcard, at the most basic level, urging people to vote to retain our democracy.
It is a difficult and challenging and sometimes frightening process, but we are doing what we need to do, and we are succeeding. We will get our democracy back on sound footing. And, having done that, we will have fulfilled Lincoln's gift to us of reminding us of what is at stake.
Love the history lesson. "Letters" has become not only a valuable view point on the news of the day but a important reminder that those who don't study history and learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. How ironic that a twenty-nine year old running for his third term as a Illinois State Representative and would preside over the greatest tragedy in American history, could so clearly speak to the issues of today. Great letter. Thank-you. WJB
Lincoln was wise beyond his fellow countrymen. It’s still so sad that the nation lost him when it did, far too early.